Chapter 784 Rurik has unique riding and archery skills
In principle, the selected people are to be fully independent warriors. However, due to practical factors, many people cannot give up their wealth. In this way, they get more benefits.
The first cavalry unit will serve as the most senior bodyguard of the Prince of Rus and will also be used flexibly as a mobile legion in war.
They must be worthy of the food, clothing and weapons supplies given by the prince, and they must be worthy of the monthly allowance of silver coins.
Just like the cavalry soldiers from the Sixth Banner, each of them was assigned a hectare of land and had a wife. During the busy farming period, they still had to plow in the spring and harvest in the autumn. The rest of the time they did not have to do other side jobs, they just had to be good cavalrymen.
As for the cavalry soldiers who came from White Tree Manor, their social status has suddenly improved. They receive stable allowances during their service time. Although for them, they have to serve until they are thirty years old before they can retire and marry a wife. This is not a big disadvantage. According to the prince
According to the regulations, they are destined to marry later and have children later, so there are loopholes in the rules. The prince did not prohibit them from creating illegitimate children. When they retire, they will be allocated a land and a generous pension. Retiring at the age of thirty is not really retirement.
If there is a large-scale war and the cavalry is expanded, these veterans will serve immediately as reservists.
All cavalrymen, like no other, must serve for a full ten years, and then retire with honor and become a reserve.
Their children will also receive certain preferential treatment, and the sons of cavalry will have the right to take over their father's class first. According to Rurik's idea, a father who has been riding horses for ten years can teach many people who are good at riding horses in advance through family education.
's son.
In this regard, Rurik intends to learn from the service system of the Roman Legion and then make certain adjustments based on the current situation of the Principality of Rus.
The natural and simple tradition of all citizens serving as soldiers that the principality has long adhered to must be adapted to the new era.
The mercenary team of more than 100 people, which was completely infantry, can be said to be the first fully independent standing army.
The six flag corps that were subsequently organized and trained by the people were not standing troops. This complex army organization only has clear military significance when a real war breaks out. In a sense, this is the so-called "one-minute man", who has the ability to
Militiamen with combat capabilities and able to immediately assemble for combat.
In a complete sense, the private armed force that belongs to Rurik's own mobilization currently only has a scale of 250 people. Although the people in the mercenary team will be ordered to do some logging and fishing work, it is just an economic supplement.
Almost all of their funding comes from royalties.
These people lived on the stipends distributed, and all their food and clothing came from the prince.
With this kind of complete economic binding, they can live a good life with no worries about food and clothing, good treatment and high status. Do they really believe in a human god? A human hero blessed by Odin?
They have enough status and money, which is the basis of loyalty.
As the field of management is said to be extremely huge, one of Rurik's jobs in the seemingly boring winter is to organize the young scribes he trained to calculate the economic accounts of the huge principality.
The quiet-hearted Ella Historia cannot become a female warrior after all. She is busy working with pen and paper, and now she is busy making statistical calculations on the taxes and other material output data collected by the Principality of Rus, and then preparing for next spring.
A financial budget was made for subsequent material consumption. The amount of calculation was quite huge. As such, the quiet woman was very happy that she had established her unique position in the power center of the principality and became further important.
Ella was the head of the scribes, and the more than ten local women who studied with her also received more advanced mathematics education from the prince himself while improving their business.
This winter, the princes and princes who personally studied horse riding and slashing during the day turned into priests, teaching linear programming in advanced mathematics to the scribes.
Those boring function equations, colorful characters, and complex formula systems were born to deal with real-life problems.
As the European powers competed for supremacy, any technology that could be used to improve combat effectiveness was adopted by the monarchs of various countries. Operations research content such as linear programming was used in logistics material mobilization calculations and military action calculations. The most direct effect is to make decisions on the material consumption of military expeditions.
The precise budget then turned into the calculation of the production and consumption of the entire country's material system, and finally reached an extreme, giving rise to a great attempt - planned economy.
The total number of people living in the principality is 100,000, and the actually tightly controlled population is only 60,000, including more than 10,000 children. This is an extremely limited economy, and it is also
A rapidly developing economy.
Although it is not enough to create a functional department called the "Planning Commission", the principality has a small population and has established a calculation team that can basically calculate the people's demand and consumption of major bulk materials, and thus provide an official price for the materials.
and ensuring that the “oat-based” economic system can continue to operate safely.
Of course, the principality only has this small population. In today's bad era in Europe, a kingdom of 100,000 people with strong organization and combat effectiveness has no problem running sideways on the European continent.
Just like the Ostrogothic Kingdom that was defeated by Belisara three hundred years ago. The country mobilized only 25,000 men from all over the country. After a great war, the kingdom was instantly destroyed due to the collective extermination of the male group.
The Principality of Ross is facing the same possibility, and the Principality is simply unable to withstand a major defeat!
Unless, the priority for combat is not soldiers mobilized by civilians, but paid professional soldiers.
Looking at it, except for Denmark, which is obviously in internal strife, and the Frankish Kingdom, which is even more in internal strife, the Principality of Rus has no strong enemies under its eyes. If it has assembled thousands of troops in the past few years to launch a war that gambles on the fate of the country, at least there will be no foreseeable future.
possible.
The principality must take advantage of this period of opportunity to develop its comprehensive strength and further develop its standing army, but its numbers must be controlled.
"Build a cavalry flag force with a strength of 600 people. A small team of ten, three small teams and one squadron, and a hundred-man team of ten small teams. The six hundred-man teams will be matched with the flag team's command center to form the entire flag team. So who will come?
How about being the flag captain? Well, we have to let them compete and the stronger one will win."
A great plan was hatched in Rurik's head. According to his estimation, it was possible to support a thousand-man off-duty standing army with his current financial resources, but it was not appropriate to continue to expand the scale.
At the end of November, the eighty selected cavalry began to increase their training in spear thrusting.
It's still the old rule. If you release your spear before it hits the target, you will be whipped. The burning taste is not pleasant.
The snowy wilderness outside the city is very cold. According to the habits of the Pecheneg people, people and horses should not run around in this cold weather. The right way is to hide in a warm stable. These Turkic horses are generally cold-resistant.
After all, the Ukrainian-Southern Russian grassland where they are galloping has a minimum temperature of -20°C in winter. Now each horse has grown an extremely thick winter mane, making each one look more fluffy and fat.
The horse's food treatment became better due to participating in the training, and Rurik naturally got more horse manure. Horse manure is a treasure and cannot be thrown away, and the fermented compost can be used to fertilize the fields next year.
The horses breathed out white mist, and the riders with infantry spears also breathed out white mist.
There is a pillar directly in front of the rider, with a leather ball nearly the size of a football erected on it. Two large squirrel skins are sewn together and filled with a large amount of hay to create such a cavalry thrust target.
Look! This young cavalry galloped on his horse and charged with all his strength. The spear was flattened, and the spearhead instantly hit the ball! He pulled the reins gently, and the charging horse slowly stopped. It turned three times on the snow and stopped.
He raised his spear high to signal his success to all onlookers.
In combat, the cavalry will use spearheads that are easy to break, and any hit to the enemy will cause fatal injuries. What they are training now is to accurately poke the ball target, and everyone must be trained to be able to do this easily.
After seven full days of spear training, both the men and the horses were actually exhausted.
But after three days of rest, the much-anticipated riding and shooting training finally began!
Even Rurik himself participated on horseback.
The short Prince Kagan of Pecheneg is now dressed like a Russian warrior, and he does not feel at all incompatible with the classic blue stripes on his underwear.
He no longer tied his hair in strange braids on the back of his head, but simply followed the example of the prince and kept a "ponytail".
Not just him, a large group of cavalry trainees are either born with straight or curly hair, but now they generally wear rough "horsetails", which are said to be as elegant and brave as galloping horses.
Many people have learned archery. For the time being, there is no beautiful recurve bow, so they use hunting bows such as short wooden bows instead.
The finger-wrenching banishing technique is universal in the principality, but on weekdays everyone is accustomed to placing the arrow on the left side, just like a warrior who always holds a sword in his right hand.
Kagan stood in the stirrup and declared to everyone: "The arrow should be placed on the right side, right on the thumb of your left hand holding the bow. Only in this way, you can take out the arrow from the quiver, put it on the bowstring and shoot immediately. Excellent
An archer can shoot ten arrows in a very short time..."
Kagan simply performed a practical demonstration. Not to mention the shooting accuracy, he did indeed achieve what he claimed to be able to shoot ten arrows in a very short time. The whole action was smooth and smooth.
Of course, it is possible to shoot quickly if the arrow is nocked on the right side. How can an archer who is accustomed to the left nock adapt quickly to a sudden change in the bow position? Nowadays, all cavalry, including Rurik himself, are the ultimate beginners in mounted archery.
The right-hand bow was a bit awkward, so the riders simply dismounted from their horses and fired randomly at the target with the right-hand bow. They didn't aim for accuracy, but just wanted to master the new shooting feel.
It just so happens that the horse can also rest further.
The archery training has been going on for many days. Even with a low-pound short wooden bow, you have to shoot up to 300 times a day. Who doesn’t have sore arms?
Finally, it was time for the mounted shooting test to demonstrate the success of the training. At the beginning, everyone just sat steadily on the horse, standing sideways and shooting at the target.
Those handsome boys from the Sixth Flag Team who have received adequate archery training have adapted to the new archery model and have the highest target rate.
The worst thing is the sons of boyar nobles from allied estates who are forced to serve as soldiers. The so-called sons of nobles are just stupid sons of landlords. Their poor shooting skills are indeed embarrassing. This is not surprising. A group of people may be destined to hunt.
The boy who had no chance is now a cavalryman. He is a beginner in holding a bow and archery, and now he knows nothing about riding and shooting. Their inherent arrogance has been completely crushed by the ruthless reality. Fortunately, their white backs have not been whipped.
The skin is torn apart.
As a whole, they looked like they were riding high and stretched out their hips, and Rurik couldn't help but pout and look sad.
Because, his own horse-riding and archery skills also look like he has stretched his hips.
No one will accuse the prince of poor skills, because the group performance is not good.
Some people showed their frustration. At the critical moment, Kagan explained optimistically: "Don't think you can learn to ride and shoot in a few days. We Pechenegs learned to ride horses at the age of six, and at the same time we took our father's arrows to practice riding.
Shooting. An excellent warrior needs to be trained until he is twenty years old. It takes more than ten years of riding and shooting training to cultivate an excellent mounted archer! You need many years of training to succeed."
Kagan seems to be exaggerating, but it also illustrates the fact that a mounted archer cannot be accomplished quickly.
Therefore, Rurik decided to cheat.
It was an ordinary winter morning. The sun was bright and dazzling today, the air was dry and cold, and the wind was as sharp as a knife, piercing my face.
People gathered in front of the young cavalry's dormitory, and a large number of wooden-armed crossbows were placed on the ground.
Rurik clasped his hands behind his back and lectured in public: "My brother Kagan said that cavalry archers cannot be quick, and this is obviously correct. Look at the crossbows in front of you, and go get the one you like."
Everyone was quite confused. Since the prince gave the order, let’s carry it out.
They got crossbows and listened to the prince's orders: "After all, the purpose of mounted archery is to shoot arrows into the enemy's chest and neck. For this purpose, crossbows can also be used. I can't wait for you to become excellent mounted archers in ten years. That
You will all retire by then. Now when you are riding a horse and shooting with a crossbow, you should first follow this training."
They took their lightweight wooden-armed crossbows to the stables to pick up their horses, and displayed their unique posture in front of Kagan, which really surprised the Pechenegs present, including the Pecheneg captains of each team.
"Is this your unique bow?" Kagan said while stroking the crossbow that he wanted to play with Rurik.
"This is our standard weapon."
"The bow is placed horizontally, and it can actually..."
"Yes." Rurik said with a dull face: "It's just like your arm is always pulling the bowstring, and you can shoot it at any time. You can even aim at the target before shooting, and a fool can become a marksman."
"I...I don't believe it." With these words, Kagan saw the unique bow of the Russians for the first time. This was a painful blow to his pride.
What do you mean? After all, Kagan has not really seen the majesty of the Russian army, but he has some general and fallacious understanding of the Russian army.
Even a simple saddle has a relatively hard structural protrusion at the front end, which happens to be a fulcrum. It can be used to tie the reins or to put the hoops of the crossbow on. The power of the wooden arm crossbow
It is limited, and all it shoots are ordinary light arrows. After all, it is a modification of a short wooden bow, and only some tendons are glued on the bow arms to barely increase the strength.
"I'll show you how to hook an arrow on horseback."
Rurik took back his crossbow and operated it in front of Kagan. The iron ring covered the protrusion, he pulled the bowstring with both hands, leaned back, and the string caught the mechanism. An arrow was inserted into the concave
slot, and was slightly fixed by the steel shrapnel at the tail. This crossbow was designed with a shoulder rest, and Rurik fired accurately at the hanging squirrel target not far away like a musket.
"Ah! I actually hit it!" Kagan was shocked, and asked a soul question almost at the same time: "Brothers, it seems that you have many of these..."
"It's a crossbow."
"I want to buy it."
"You want to buy?!" Rurik was shaken up. It stands to reason that he can be sold if someone wants to buy him, but he just talked about the transaction, why not get a big one?
Rurik replied decisively: "Just trade your recurve bow with mine, a recurve bow for a crossbow."
"this……"
"Are you hesitating? Isn't this a wonderful deal for you?"
Rurik suddenly became very lively, and Kagan could tell that his sworn brother really liked recurve bows. According to the rules of the steppe, brothers were treated politely in Rus, and they had to give some gifts no matter what.
Kagan thought for a moment and slapped his thigh: "Then I will exchange thirty recurve bows with you."
"Deal! Just not now." Rurik sighed lightly, looked at his brothers on horseback and holding crossbows, then looked at the target set up, and then stared into Kagan's eyes: "Indeed, I can't complete the mounted shooting.
Quickly, if you use our crossbow, it should be much better."
"It doesn't matter." Kagan shrugged: "If you can use a sling to launch stones and kill the enemy, no one will think there is anything wrong with riding a horse and wielding a sling."
A crossbow cavalry was born? No! Whether the cavalry uses crossbows, recurve bows, or even fire blunderbuss, they are all tactical aids and a means of disrupting the enemy's array. The main weapon of the cavalry is still the cavalry.
The use of spears, sabers, and at least crossbows can make a group of beginners in mounted archery instantly become good shooters. Just don't have any illusions about using rapid fire to implement "fire suppression".
The squirrel target began to hit the target frequently, and the cavalry holding the crossbow passed by quickly. They could better seize the opportunity to pull the trigger.
From Rurik's point of view, the cavalry unit with preliminary combat effectiveness that he dreamed of has been successful. Although it has not experienced any actual combat test, they at least showed fairly good abilities on the training ground.
There is no need to demand too much from them. This group of young people have only been training for a month at most. They have mastered horse riding, chopping on horseback, thrusting with spears, and shooting with crossbows. Although they are not good at it, they have enough time to improve.
It can be said that in the eyes of ordinary people, the Principality of Rus successfully gave birth to a cavalry force that looks majestic, which is actually a great glory of the principality.